Dead brides in bathtubs and fallible forensics

The antihero of this book is a mustachioed man who had dreadful luck with women. Three of his brides died accidentally in their baths, but not before they had willed him all their money.

Welcome to Edwardian England; not your usual CSI set. Jane Robins charts how a pattern of murders was uncovered through the actions of the dead women's relatives, a determined policeman and a bevy of cheated women. Bernard Spilsbury, a rising star of forensic science, was tasked with the job of figuring out whether the deaths were accidents or murders.

Forensic science is just one thread in this fascinating book. We read of the "scientific thinking" that pervades the time, and its influence on Arthur Conan Doyle, whose great fictional hero Spilsbury was repeatedly compared to. Many of the book's themes are highly relevant today: the fallibility of forensic science, the dangers of over-interpreting evidence and of overconfident expert witnesses.

Through the lives of the players, Robins puts all this in social context: the plight of young unmarried women, the expectations of society and the rise of the suffragettes. Over all of this looms the threat of war. Not a traditional science book, it ranges much wider: a real ripping yarn.

Book Information:The Magnificent Spilsbury and the Case of the Brides in the Bath by Jane RobinsPublished by John Murray£16.99